Driving a war machine

Before you are allowed to drive this vehicle, they give you a bad haircut. Then you are put through a survival-training course where you learn that insects are a great source of protein and dodging bullets is just another day at the office. Only once you have signed your life away, are you handed the keys to this vehicle. 

You see, this is not just another vehicle. It’s not an SUV or a truck. It’s an Iveco LMV or Light Multirole Vehicle and it’s a war machine. It’s been designed to help the good guys kill the bad guys while protecting the good guys from the bad guys. 

This 4WD tactical vehicle was developed by Iveco’s Defence Vehicle Division. Apart from Italy, Belgium, the UK, Spain, Norway, the Czech Republic and Croatia too have inducted the Iveco LMV into their armies.

The red Iveco LMV before me is one of the very few that’s not painted in regulation army camouflage. Part of Ferrari’s Magic India Discovery Tour in 2008, it was a support vehicle for the two 612 Scagliettis that did the 11,000km loop of India. Evidently Fiat, owner of both Ferrari and Iveco, had organised the Magic India Discovery Tour on a war footing!